EPL: Flop Team of the Week - West Brom, QPR and Stoke lead the shame brigade

It’s all well and good seeing who is the best of the weekend, but how about the worst. This is not a team you want to be getting in to.

Donkey Team of the Weekend: West Brom

West Brom’s showing at Norwich was inexcusable and had Steve Clarke turning various shades of red in rage. Norwich is a difficult place to go to certainly, but to concede four times to one of the least effective attacks in the league when you are considered one of the better defenses was bad and the manner of the goals was horrendous. All four came from West Brom errors, either indirectly or glaringly directly.

Ben Foster – West Brom

Rob Green must be breathing a sigh of relief not to have ended up in this team after two errors, but he was forced in to one of those. Foster had a nightmare. He is a solid keeper but he is prone to unbelievable errors. His massive air swing at the ball with his favoured left foot gave Grant Holt an easy tap in and Norwich survival in the league. He also spilled the ball twice in his box as if trying to corral a bar of soap.

Jose Bosingwa – QPR

This was the worst individual 45 minutes of the season. 45 minutes, because he was subbed off at half time having cost his team two goals and flattened them after a nice start. Not bad for £55k this week. Point at two of the QPR fans in the crowd and the chances are their combined salary this year doesn’t match what Bosingwa got for this 45 minutes. He gave away a ridiculous penalty and then an awful hospital pass to Rob Green gave Newcastle what would prove to be the winning goal. He didn’t even look like he cared that he was humiliating himself and his wage payer either.

Jonas Olsson – West Brom

Olsson has been reliable and consistent for West Brom for some time but he was terrible at Carrow Road. He was indecisive and ineffective and cost them the first goal. He also got himself in Foster’s way to cause his error. Not what you expect from him.

Gareth McAuley – West Brom

Own goal, four goals conceded, misplayed offside to cost a goal. Oh dear. Like his partner, McAuley has been a rock this season but he was not at it. Normally a calm influence at the back, he couldn’t help swing the tide as West Brom collapsed in the second half.

Goran Popov – West Brom

It says a lot that his direct opponent, Robert Snodgrass, made the Team of the Week, yet Popov finds himself here. He didn’t come close to stopping him and the majority of the Norwich threat came down his flank. He also didn’t offer much help or width going forward and was lucky not to suffer the fate of Billy Jones, the right back who was taken off at half time.

Charlie Adam – Stoke City

It’s 1-1 at half time in the Stoke-Spurs game with Stoke looking to give their home fans something to cheer about to end the season. Charlie Adam, on a booking after clattering into Jan Vertonghen, steps out for the second half having already completed a stunning 9 of 15 passes for a truly amazing 60% pass success rate and a mind blowing 0 out of 3 long passes. So what does he do? He lunges in from behind, nowhere near the ball, and gets sent off. Thanks Charlie, see you next year.

Stephane M’Bia – QPR

I’m not sure why Harry Redknapp played him with his open courting of a return to Marseille in the week, but he repaid him with a performance of impressive ineptitude. How does this take your fancy? 15 passes completed, 3 fouls. WOW! It’s hard to pick out players from the QPR Newcastle game because it was so awful, Hatem Ben Arfa aside, but M’Bia’s was notable.

Ramires – Chelsea

Chelsea needed to beat Aston Villa to secure Champions League football for next season. They were 1-0 down to a Benteke goal when, on 44 minutes, Ramires gets himself idiotically sent off. What makes it worse is that he was actually playing fairly well until he got himself sent off, but he is very lucky not to have cost his team with his ill discipline. If Benteke hadn’t lost his head and Frank Lampard rescued them, Chelsea would have lost.

Giorgios Karagounis – Fulham

Playing in central midfield Karagounis was responsible for stopping the roaming Coutinho and also for giving central supply to Dimitar Berbatov. Well, Coutinho ran riot throughout the game, including making two goals from the middle of the pitch. To add to this, Karagounis completed a measly two of thirteen passes within 25 yards of the Liverpool goal. In other words, he lost the ball 11 times with Fulham on the attack.

Jon Walters – Stoke City

Walters played on the right of the five-man midfield but essentially as a second striker. He tries hard and people admire his work rate. But if you look at what he actually did against Spurs it will be horrifying for Stoke fans. Although probably not, because bless him he runs hard. Walters received the ball 21 times in the game. With this, he completed just 11 of 18 passes, 0 successful dribbles and 0 successful crosses. So he was -10 on turnovers on his own, he lost it 10 more times than he received it. Giving the ball to him resulted in negative outcome on 10 of the 21 occasions. But, he does run hard.

Bobby Zamora – QPR

The Flop Team of the Week by a long way, which is impressive in this company. But look at this; Do you want a striker who has admitted he doesn’t enjoy the game or feel any passion for it? Do you want to pay him £50k a week? Do you want him to have 0 shots on target, one final third pass and for him to lose out in aerial duels twice as often as he wins them? And also to complete just 52% of his passes. Of his passes! At least Walters has dribbles and crosses in his ridiculous possession surrender. Zamora gave it away 14 times just by passing. He didn’t even attempt a take on and had a failed cross. A spectacular display of atrociousness.